Syracuse Basketball: Top target joins former 4-star prospect at prep power

Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star prospect Chris Bunch, a high-priority target for the Orange in this cycle, has proven one of the fastest-risers across the country in his class in recent months, according to 247Sports.

Now the 6-foot-7 wing has elected to transfer to one of the premier prep-school squads nationwide for his senior season, and that should provide Bunch with even greater exposure.

Per a recent tweet from Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com, Bunch is moving on to the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah.

Bunch will head to the Wasatch Academy from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif. In the most recent campaign, the Wasatch Academy was a top-15 group overall, and this team could end up as a pre-season top-10 squad ahead of the upcoming stanza, particularly with Bunch on board.

Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star target Chris Bunch has a new prep home.

At the Wasatch Academy, Bunch will team up with a roster that also includes 2022 four-star shooting guard Roddy Gayle Jr., who previously played at Lewiston-Porter High School in Youngstown, N.Y.

Last November, Gayle had the ‘Cuse among his six finalists before opting to compete in the future for Ohio State out of the Big Ten Conference.

Gayle is a top-60 player in the 2022 class, according to most recruiting services. Bunch, meanwhile, recently vaulted into the top-60 nationally, per 247Sports. That’s quite a talented duo for the Wasatch Academy entering the 2021-22 term.

As we noted in a column a few months back, the Wasatch Academy is among a handful of top-flight prep teams that have banded together to form a super league of sorts, known as the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference.

Suiting up in this league will provide Bunch with all kinds of increased exposure. Assuming he plays well in his senior campaign, Bunch could witness a further national-rankings bump, and his list of scholarship offers absolutely may expand.

Speaking of his recruitment, Bunch has taken visits to the Hill and also to Rutgers. In early July, he told college basketball insider Adam Zagoria in an article that he would like to make trips to other squads such as Florida State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, and USC.

Bunch has said in recent interviews that he has the versatility to play multiple positions, including point guard, shooting guard and small forward.

Even though Syracuse basketball already has three verbal commitments in its 2022 class, with one of them a point guard and the other two on the wing, there is room for Bunch in this cycle.

When he trims his list of contenders in the near future, a plan that Bunch has noted in interviews, I fully expect that the Orange will make the cut.